JP
Jonathan "JP" Pembersley is one of the main characters in Fresh Meat and is a resident of 28, Hartnell. He is a geology student and an Old Stoic who failed to get into a 'proper' university. He is an arrogant person who tends to look down on his fellow students, and his privileged background is often mocked by Kingsley. Unlike Oregon, he is open about his privileged background, and speaks with a posh accent. Nonetheless, his efforts to appear cocky and 'cool', which include sucking up to Ralph, an old classmate, often lead him into more trouble, including financing the 'Love Cloud' disco, and getting drugs. His father dies midway through the first series, and in the aftermath, his childhood house is sold, and he becomes distant from his mother. With his privileged life crumbling around him, he decides to buy 28, Hartnell in Manchester from the University, allowing him to reside there with his friends. In series 4, he and Josie have a fling and after developing feelings for eachother they begin a long distance relationship. Biography Before Fresh Meat JP is from a privileged family. He grew up in his family home in Cornwall with his parents and older brother Tomothy. JP attended Stowe boarding school along with a number of other Fresh Meat characters including Ralph, Tobes and Giles. At one point during his schooling, he was caught "wanking under the college oak". Series 1 JP is first encountered by Kingsley in the toilets of the local pub near 28, Hartnell (The Fresh Meat House). He invites Kingsley into a stall with the promise of free drugs, so that he can determine whether or not the cocaine he has purchased is poisoned. JP asks Kingsley to hang out with, by which point Kingsley is trying to find an escape. Kingsley improvises that he is actually studying Agricultural Engineering at Knutsford university. Later that night at the pub, under mounting peer pressure from new housemates Oregon and Vod, Josie determines that JP looks like a 'safe pair of hands' and proceeds to flirt with and subsequently sleep with him. The following morning, Josie discovers to her horror that JP is the seventh and final member of their house, yet to arrive. JP makes his official arrival and introduces himself to the rest of the house. Learning that Kingsley is a member of the house and that he had previously lied to him about his Agricultural Engineering course, JP nicknames Kingsley "Knutsford". Unhappy with the small room that he has been left with as the last to arrive, JP uses his wealth to bribe Vod to swap rooms with him, landing him the attic room in the house. He also promises to pay for Sky Sports and Movies for the house to silence Kingsley and Howard's concerns about his dibs on the upstairs bathroom. Following this (along with Josie's secret concerns about having slept with JP), Kinglsey and Josie decide that they will ask JP to leave the house. Kingsley has a private conversation with him, wherein JP tactlessly reveals that he and Josie had sex. Days later, Josie encounters JP moving his weights into Paul Lamb "The Invisible Man"'s temporarily vacant room. When she questions him, JP lies that he has permission from Paul. In the ensuing conversation. Josie reveals that she regrets having sex with JP. At the student's union, JP encounters Ralph and Tobes, two of his former schoolmates from Stowe. They remember him as the one who was caught 'wanking under the college oak'. He later invites them to a house party thrown at 28, Hartnell to attempt to bond with them. The three of them end up getting high in Paul's vacant room, wherein JP invites his Stowe colleagues to use Paul's room as their private gym. Later, JP witnesses an angry Paul throwing the weights out of his window. In the following weeks, JP has a one-night stand with a girl but he ends up falling asleep during sex. The girl leaves and writes her number on the back of a leaflet titled 'Wake Up to Rape'. JP wakes up to find the leaflet next to him in bed and becomes frightened that he raped his date while drunk and doesn't remember. His paranoia increases to the point where he begins announcing all of his actions and clearly stating his intentions. Josie confirms with JP that their one-night stand was, to her regret, "definitely consensual" and convinces him to ask the girl whether or not he raped her. To his relief, she confirms that JP is not a rapist. During a drinking session where the housemates reveal to each other how they lost their virginities, Kingsley shocks everyone with a far-fetched story about losing his virginity aged 12. JP rebuts that lost his virginity on his 18th birthday when his uncle bought him a "Dockside-fine" hooker. JP continues to try and impress his old schoolmates Ralph and Tobes by obtaining drugs for them, using Howard as a "wingman". They continue to shun him and he returns to the house depressed, only to be amused by the discovery that Kingsley has only just lost his virginity, despite his self-appointed nickname of "The Pussy Man". Later in the term, the housemates attend the 2010 UK tuition fee protests, with JP planning to use the demo as a free trip to meet up with old friends in a bar to watch rugby. He ends up being roped into the protests and when he is asked to wheel a disabled girl to the centre of the action. After trying to make his way out of a kettle, JP is pushed to the ground by a policewoman. He ends up getting passionately involved in the protests and is dragged back to the coach by the police. JP meets up with his emotionally distant father for a meal and informs him that his actions at the tuition fees protests resulted in a court hearing, though the charges were dropped. His father reveals that he is on his way to visit JP's uncle Donald, who is a heart surgeon. He then informs JP that this is because he has had a heart attack. JP is very upset by the fact that his father neglected to mention this to him. Later, Vod accidentally overdoses and is taken to hospital where she is told she should enter rehab, but JP talks her into going back to the house instead. JP, Oregon and Vod decide to take acid at the university's film club, but before the girls can take their tabs JP gets a call saying that his father has had another heart attack and that JP needs to return home. As Oregon and Vod are driving JP home whilst he is high on acid, Oregon's mother calls to say her horse is dying. They make a detour to her house where an emotional JP sits with the horse and projects his feelings about his dying father onto it. By the time they reach JP's house his father has died. Back at the house, JP is in denial about his feelings towards his father's death and goes to see a counsellor just to try and get out of his end-of-term exam, but later decides to take the exam after he bribes his lecturer Dan to reveal the questions in exchange for an Indian takeaway. Josie's fiancée Dave (revealed since her intercourse with JP) spends some time living in the house and wins JP and a number of other housemates' affection by fixing their dishwasher. Dave's residence at 28, Hartnell is cut short when he learns from Howard's friend Brian that Josie has slept with Kingsley. Dave goes on a rampage and Vod manages to warn Kingsley before Dave arrives at the house. Kingsley informs JP that Dave knows everything and the two of them take refuge in the house's upstairs bathroom. Dave confronts the two of them from the other side of the door until Josie arrives and the couple have a heated discussion about the matter. The next morning, JP and Kingsley awake on the bathroom floor to Howard informing JP that he has a modular exam commencing in 45 minutes and that Dave has left the premises. In the exam, JP sees to his horror that the questions have been changed and Dan informs him that there's nothing he can do. JP defiantly crosses out the questions on the test and instead answers the questions he has prepared for. After Paul Lamb "The Invisible Man"'s mother asks Howard to take care of Paul following his apparent breakdown, Howard installs cameras in Paul's room and catches him masturbating bizarrely, and JP gets hold of the video. JP finds himself agreeing to pay for Ralph's 'Love Cloud' club night in return for a DJ slot, and when he discovers it clashes with his father's funeral he tries to make arrangements to attend both when Ralph offers to drive JP to the funeral (to ensure that JP will pay for the Love Cloud night). The housemates come to JP's rescue when Cunty informs JP that Ralph won't be able to drive him to the funeral, and they all accompany him instead. At the Love Cloud night, Ralph's friends have got hold of the video of Paul, and Howard claims it is in fact him in the video to save Paul from the embarrassment. JP finds his DJ slot has been given to someone else, and that Ralph is claiming to have paid for the night himself. Vod is outraged and tells everyone that it was funded by JP, who then dedicates the night to his father and finally stands up to Ralph, telling him to "fuck off". Kingsley resolves to confess his true feelings for Josie, after learning she always talks about him when she's drunk. He returns home to find Josie and JP having sex – which a surprised Josie miserably tells Kingsley was because "I couldn't find you". In the final scenes of the series, JP is singing in the shower and breaks into tears, finally beginning to mourn his father's passing. Series 2 Upon his return from the Christmas break in his first year, JP temporarily houses his old friend Giles while the latter looks for accommodation in the area following his transfer to Manchester from Exeter university. After a "mental night", JP is distressed to discover that Giles is openly gay, since he had an intimate encounter with him at Stowe. Giles, however, explains that gay men don't want to have sex with every man they see and that he is not attracted to JP. JP comes to terms with this and invites Giles to move into the house following the departure of Paul Lamb "The Invisible Man". JP announces that he wants Giles to become their new housemate, only to discover that they have already rented Paul's room out to Sabine, a Dutch mature student working at the university. After a spate of muggings on campus, Josie provides the housemates with rape alarms that she received from the student's union. JP, who has been confined to his bed by a case of mumps, uses his to call Vod up to his room to tend to his needs while he is bedridden, much to her dissatisfaction. He decides to freeze his sperm when he is informed of the possibility of being rendered sterile by the disease. Ralph and Tobes visit JP and the three reconcile after the events of the Love Cloud night, before Vod hoovers up a line of Ralph's cocaine in anger at how she is being treated by JP. When he has recovered, Vod tricks JP into drinking his own sperm as revenge for his mistreatment of her. When a potentially lucrative internship on offer from BP arises at a careers day, Howard and JP immediately compete for it. When JP is caught stealing, the representative takes an interest in Kingsley, inviting him to an upcoming BP event. Howard and JP are jealous of Kingsley, and resolve to get into the event themselves. Later, Kingsley decides not to attend the event, after discovering that the image of him on one of their posters has had his soul patch airbrushed out. He gives his ticket to Howard. Howard, Vod and JP all attend the event, and after Vod impresses the representative, they all look set to get internships. However, Vod stages an anti-BP protest by standing on a table and spilling oil everywhere. The three of them are ejected. During the Spring holidays, JP invites the gang to stay at his family home in Cornwall. JP's mother reveals she is selling the house and an enraged JP resolves to barricade the gang inside the house to prevent potential buyers from viewing it, while drinking all 147 bottles of his father's wine. Vod discovers some letters of JP's father's to an illicit lover, which imply that JP is not actually his father's son. After Oregon and Josie privately kiss each other, JP is tricked into kissing Kingsley passionately, in exchange for a public kiss between the two girls that is never given. The following morning, JP burns the last of his possessions, tearfully resolving to give up on the house and return to Manchester with his father's ashes. Vod and Oregon console him, and Vod discreetly throws JP's father's letters onto the fire so that he will not find out about them. Shortly after returning to 28, Hartnell with a large number of his family heirlooms, the house is burgled when Josie accidentally leaves her keys in the front door on a night out with her friend (and Kingsley's girlfriend) Heather. To ensure that the insurance covers it, Josie secretly smashes a window to make it look like a forced entry. JP has a number of very valuable items stolen, as well as his father's ashes. Vod falls madly in love with Al, the man who is repairing the lock, and JP attempts to befriend him as he is a "real Mancunian". After Josie owns up to what she has done, she searches in a nearby skip and finds the urn containing JP's father's ashes. Unfortunately, she accidentally spills them. Kingsley is dissatisfied with the quality of Dan's teaching, and makes an official complaint. However, JP and Howard do not back him up - JP because he had changed his mind, and Howard because Dan had got him a summer internship with Shell. Things come to a head on a field trip in the Pennines when JP gets trapped on a ledge, and admits to Kingsley that Heather had walked in on him in the shower, which is why he's been acting awkward around her. As a result, Kingsley refuses to help him down, and the two get into an argument. After a length period of time stuck on the ledge, JP eventually jumps down and lands on Kingsley, severely injuring the latter's leg, though JP isn't concerned by this. Following one dig too many at his privileged background, accepts Ralph's offer to join "The Stoweaways": a dining club of Old Stoics at the University. JP becomes infatuated with Celeste, the French cousin of Tobes, but Ralph 'claims' her by calling shotgun and asks JP to keep an eye on her for him while is away. JP tries to resist but eventually kisses her. Ralph finds out and kicks him out of the group, and Celeste angrily accuses JP of treating her like a piece of meat when she learns about the concept of 'shotgunning' a person. As the end of the academic year approaches, JP purchases the house, regarding it as his only home now that his old home has been sold and his father is dead, but is distressed to learn that Oregon and her new boyfriend Dylan are planning a backpacking trip around the South America, Kingsley and Heather are moving into a small bedsit, and Vod is reluctant to stay in a house with him. Despite JP's best efforts to unite them, everyone seems to be splitting up. After being rejected by Sabine, a devastated Howard decides to leave the University, but JP convinces him to stay and says that he is attached to Howard like "a good dry cleaners". The next morning, Howard and JP relax in their new hot tub while the rest of the housemates depart for the summer. Series 3 As the friends begin their second year at Manchester Medlock, they welcome new fresher Candice into the house who has replaced Sabine after her return to Rotterdam. When Howard admits to JP that he liked having sex with Sabine and wants to have more, JP announces that their second year will be 'spear year' (their year of sex) and the duo try to coax female freshers to join their skiing society. The society is eventually exposed as an attempt to pull girls, who desert the group en masse at their house party at 28, Hartnell, though not before Howard successfully scores, to JP's shock. With nothing else to do, the gang decide to go to Southampton to attend a "traffic light" party that Josie has invited them to since being kicked off her course in Manchester. JP attempts to flaunt his social status to win girls over, but this fails. That night, as the gang are sleeping in Josie's room, JP is awakened by a sound coming from the bed, and he, Vod and Howard realise that Kingsley and Josie are discreetly having sex (Kingsley has implied that he has broken up with Heather by this point). Upon waking up Oregon (who is sleeping next to them) and warning her, she creates a scene, resulting in JP suggesting that they all engage in an orgy. Later in the term, JP and Howard compete over Sam, the girl that Howard managed to pull in the previous episode. It soon becomes clear that Sam is more interested in JP, but Howard refuses to give up. At Vod's impromptu wedding to her Mexican lover Javier, Sam decides to ask JP on a date, much to Howard's devastation. After JP and Sam have a one-night stand together, Howard devises a plan to defeat JP as a rival for Sam's affections, by organising a team for her charity pub quiz with JP as captain. JP is initially excited by the prospect of impressing Sam, until he learns that there will be a "captain's only" round at the end, and realises that Howard's plan is to embarrass him. At the end of the quiz, JP is busted cheating and ends up alienating Sam. JP convinces Kingsley, Josie and Vod to join him in taking part in a paid medical drug trial, fully knowing that Sam will be there. Vod promptly leaves after discovering the trial has a strict "no narcotics" policy. At the clinic, JP tries to impress Sam with stories from his gap year, and initially appears successful, until he tells one in which a friend of his almost died after being left in the sea off the coast of Durban, thinking it was funny. JP later tries to reconcile with Sam after discovering he had no part in the near death of his friend, but discovers she is now with another boy. Kingsley, who is now in a relationship with Josie, is shaken to learn that she fakes most of her orgasms during sex with him, but did not do on the occasions where she had sex with JP. At the same time, JP is nursing a broken heart over Sam's rejection and has lost his usual confidence and cockiness. He has become placid, quiet, and completely uninterested in Vod's promiscuous mother Chris's attempts to have sex with him. Later, Oregon decides she wants to campaign against the deportation of a Tunisian student and enlists in the help of JP, Kingsley, Josie and Candice in organising a sit-in at the university. After being told by Vod his new mopey attitude is making him lose his reputation as a "legend", JP quickly goes about coming up with several crazy and ill-advised schemes to try and make himself a legend again, including buying an air-hockey table for the house, spontaneously buying a £9,000 house and setting his shoes on fire. He does all of this at the sit-in but is largely ignored by his peers. Josie, fed up of JP's neglect of the house, soon finds herself bonding with the boys who live in the house next door. Due to Kingsley's new friendship with Sam, JP makes numerous attempts to kill him, under the impression that there is something going on between them. At a party that Candice throws for Howard's birthday, JP forces Kingsley to invite Sam by blackmailing him with his knowledge of all the texts Kingsley has been sending Sam, that Josie would be hurt to discover. After the party is completely ruined by a huge argument and the entire gang's friendship is left in tatters, JP and Kingsley are left alone in the living room. JP once again gets jealous and attacks him. Kingsley and JP's fight soon enters the kitchen, where JP throws a bread knife and then a plate at Kingsley, who tries to reason with him, all the while insisting that there was never anything happening between him and Sam. JP eventually loses it and proceeds to destroy the kitchen with a rolling pin, while a frustrated Kingsley goes to bed. Now alone in the kitchen, a crying JP collapses onto the floor, tearfully lamenting that second year was meant to be 'spear year'. After the events of the party, JP decides to put the house on the market and leave Manchester. However, after reminiscing about his time in Manchester during a house viewing, he decides to take the house off the market. He decides to instead clean the house up himself, and do some cocaine. Doing so motivates him to tell Sam that he is finally over her. After Josie and Kingsley decide to try for an open relationship, a tearful Josie connects with JP and the two of them get into bed together, though they appear not to have sex together in the end. In the closing days of their time in second year, Josie and Kingsley decide to take a break and JP finishes tidying up the house, before commenting on how desperate for sex he is. Ending and Future At the end of the final series, JP's relationship with Josie goes long-distance since Josie is staying in Manchester. JP moves to London along with Howard and Kingsley to reluctantly pursue a high-paying yet boring job with long hours. His brother Tomothy works there and helped him secure the job.Category:MaleCategory:CharactersCategory:StudentsCategory:Residents of the Fresh Meat House Category:Old Stoics Category:Geology Students